Dust update 2 – 28 June 2018

The following emails were received in response to resident’s concerns about the dust being generated by the Hawkenbury Farm development. I noticed a jet washer on the Maryland Road entrance yesterday afternoon and there were two water tankers also present. Berkeley Homes have also promised to landscape the and move the Maryland entrance back into the opening, so that it is not such an eyesore for local residents.

Tracy Moore, Our local Councillor emailed Berkeley Home to further emphasise our concerns:

Dear Bal,

It was a pleasure to meet you today and I do appreciate you coming to see me when I requested a word with the site manager. As a councillor for Park ward and a cabinet member of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council I am very concerned that Berkeley’s are not cooperating with the planning conditions for this development at Hawkenbury Farm and are not compliant with the code for Considerate Contractors. Although you have no control over the dry and hot weather, I think we both agreed that more can be done on the construction site to mitigate the dust clouds being created in the residential neighbourhood of Maryland Road and Hawkenbury Road.

I have copied below an email received this week from the Hawkenbury Village Association chairman (who I have copied on this email). He has summarised very clearly the problems and I look forward to your immediate reply with a list of what measures you are instructing your team onsite today.

I have also copied in to this email the Head of Planning at TWBC, the Director responsible for Planning and the Chief Executive of the Council. The planning application at Hawkenbury Farm was a contentious one, and it is essential that your team do all they can to mitigate the impact on neighbours. This includes the drivers of construction vehicles driving far more slowly, in a residential neighbourhood, than we witnessed in our ten minute conversation this morning.

Kind regards,
Tracy

The following email was received from Andrew Lewis, Project Manager, for Berkeley Homes.

Dear Tracy

Thank you for your email which we have now had the opportunity to review.

I would firstly like to apologise for any concern that may have been caused since the commencement of our works in Hawkenbury. We take complaints of this nature very seriously and I assure you this will be fully reviewed.

As part of our commitment, we have submitted and had approved a Construction Environmental Management Plan. I can confirm that we are working in accordance with this and will continue to review and improve against this as the development continues.

I can also confirm that we are working in accordance with other planning conditions, however I have instructed our commitments to be reviewed for any further improvements against these.

Unfortunately we have experienced an unusual spell of dry weather recently at a time where the major earth works are ongoing. I have instructed a full review of our existing watering down procedures on site, in response to this dry weather and the increase of dust in the immediate area.

With regards to Mr Kenward’s comments relating to compensation, I would be more than happy to discuss this with him during our meeting scheduled for Tuesday 3rd July.

Should you have any further comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me and once again please accept my apologies for any concern caused.